Friday, July 23, 2010

Building a home is almost like starting a new business. With very little experience, you’ll sink in a lot of money to get educated on the ins and outs of getting it done. Given enough capital, you’ll eventually succeed, and the business will flourish. However, are you willing to pay that heavy a price? Are you willing to get that frustrated?
It is the same with building your home in Mexico, either a primary residence, vacation home, or condo remodel. Eventually you get educated, and could possibly do it again. But, by the time you learn, your home will be built. Wouldn’t it be easier to use people who have been before you?

I have been building homes, remodeling condominiums, designing and building out subdivisions from the beaches at Petalan to the beaches up at Saladita for almost 10 years now. Having owned a construction company for 20 years in the competitive market of Southern California, I semi-retired to Ixtapa / Zihuatanejo. After living here a short time, it soon became apparent there was a real need in the construction industry: People who are willing to invest thousands of dollars in construction have very little experience in building, especially in Mexico. This leaves them open to being outright taken advantage of, or paying too high a price to get the work done. Plus, since there is no inspection of the work, there was nobody representing the owner to ensure the quality of the materials and workmanship, or that the work was being built to code.

I can either work with the owner from day one. It starts with finding the right architect, getting the Environmental permits when required, on through the construction and the final close out. Or, I can just oversee a project the owner has already contracted out.
What does it cost? In most instances, my services will not cost you a single dime. Besides coordinating with the accountant and the worker’s contracts and payroll, overseeing the work and sending accounting summaries and digital photos for progress reports, I also buy the materials for the project. A normal contractor will mark up the material purchases by 15% when he buys them. That expense is eliminated. The cost savings more than pay for my time, and generally bring you a few thousand dollars back in savings.
I am also the author of the book “Build Your Home In Mexico”. You will find this is an invaluable tool in understanding building here, from A to Z.

"Ed, we've heard from friends all over Troncones and Ixtapa that their houses leaked or had major damage from the storm but our place was perfect. Not a drop anywhere inside, no water damage at all on the walls... not even any mold anywhere after all the rain we've had. So thank you for building us such a solid house."Saludos,Laura